DVR Alert: Victoria Golf Club And The Aussie Masters

The ideal clubhouse at Victoria features overnight rooms and an excellent split-level design. (click to enlarge)As I noted in this week's Golf World Monday, the cure for your primetime golf withdrawals arrives Wednesday in the form Victoria Golf Club and the JBWere Australian Masters. And while an appearance by Luke Donald along with several good storylines should be enough to interest you, it's getting the chance to see Victoria that makes this a must watch event.

I was lucky enough to get to play Victoria a few weeks ago during a fundraiser for Geoff and Juli Ogilvy's You Are My Sunshine foundation for cancer research. The course is located near Royal Melbourne and therefore unfairly takes a back seat to RM and nearby Kingston Heath on various rankings. While it may not have the number of First Team All-World holes that the Royal Melbourne Composite Course throws at you or the overall simple elegance of Kingston Heath, Victoria is every bit as interesting, original and solid from beginning to end. And because of too much rough at RM and a few too many tea trees at KH, Victoria may just be the most artfully presented of the three sandbelt elites.

In terms of elevation change, Victoria's property fits somewhere between RM and Kingston Heath: there's just enough going on to make each hole memorable but not so much that you feel like you're constantly climbing. A fantastic routing allowing for a variety of "loops" to be played, making it ideal for a club course. The green complexes offer a mix of extreme and subdued surfaces, with the par-3s standing out as some of the most intriguing on the course.  And thanks to a Mike Clayton master plan that has seen tree removal and sandy areas restored and subsequently maintained to perfection by superintendent Ian Todd, Victoria really is the model sandbelt club course. I can't think of a better compliment: you would never tire of playing it on a daily basis.

Oscar Damman and Bill Meader are credited with the design, but Alister MacKenzie was very much involved in laying out the course in 1927 and his hand is evident throughout. Here are a few holes to keep an eye on this week when Golf Channel coverage begins Wednesday at 5:30 PT/8:30 ET.

The 1st is one of the most wonderfully bizarre starting holes in golf, a 260-yard par-4 that is essentially a long par-3 for the professionals. Playing downhill with normal firm-and-fast golf, it's even driveable for many recreational golfers. A tee short short and left of the green will probably yield as many birdies as the player boldly going for the flag, but like many of the great risk-reward holes, temptation gets the best of us often enough that even the world's best will walk off with a diastrous 5 now and then.

The first tee view at Victoria (Click to enlarge)
The 1st green rear view shows a nice fall off over the green and onto the second tee:

Rear view of the 1st hole. 

The uphill 7th has the same scorecard yardage as the 4th, but this 180-yarder plays a club longer and presents a very different shot. While the fourth is a long, narrow green, the 7th presents a wide target tempting shots at the flags cut toward the right when in fact the wise play is to go at the left center opening of the green everytime. But something about the way the green sits makes it very hard to take that line and think you'll have a reasonable putt (but you will!).

The par-3 7th (click on image to enlarge) 

A view of the 385-yard 11th from the left side of the hole shows off all that is beautiful about sandbelt golf at its finest: sandy roughs, attractive bunkers jutting into the landing area and a setting that inspires novices and professionals alike:

The par-4 11th (click to enlarge)

The 410-yard 12th plays from elevated tee and doglegs right. The more a player cuts the corner or clings to the fairway bunker, the better the view of the green. Weak drives or those bailing out left toward the adjoining 13th fairway are almost guranteed a blind second shot thanks to a rise in the fairway:

The par-4 12th (click to enlarge)

The uphill, 156-yard 14th a heavily sloped back-to-front green with a bit of a false front. Besides presenting a fun shot to hit, the hole just sits in the landscape so artfully with perfect maintenance of hazards and native areas:

The 156-yard par-3 14th (click to enlarge)
The 315-yard 15th has a slight bend left and after a slight rise in the fairway, features a peninsula green tantalizing players to have a go at the green. But errant drives will rack up some huge numbers. Here's the view just short of the green, with the trademark sandbelt bunkering in the foreground:

The par-4 15th (click on image to enlarge)

The 195-yard par-3 16th plays uphill to a green that plays smaller than its actual size. Missing pin high or long right is deadly:

The par-3 16th (Click on image to enlarge)

Comments

[sir real]

That is some golf course! Looks like the boys will have an interesting test, especially if some wind arrives during the week.

[John R]

These are great courses. It looks like a reasonably strong recreational player could play the tournament tees and have an enjoyable round. Unlike so many tour courses which would just be a long slog for someone who couldn't hit tour distances.

[rb]

fantastic insight...thank you! If the Golf Channel had any creativity at all, they would hire you to do a piece like this before every tournament telecast...maybe a half-hour special to describe the layout...very informative...but I'm sure no one would watch.

[mel]

I would like to echo @rb's comments. Great photos - great insight. Thanks Geoff!

By the way, I would definitely watch the show @rb suggests if the Golf Channel ever makes you an offer. :)

[RobC]

As a very proud VGC member, I think you have captured the nature of the place beautifully. Unknown to many of your readers is that the Clubhouse is also a gem and has accommodation. Come on down America!

[pasaplayer]

Bucket list stuff.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

Ain't that the truth. And with accommodations!

[Smolmania]

Is there anything better than the photos of these Mackenzie sandbelt bunkers? +1 for me pasa. . .

[Brad]

Love the uphill par 3s. You seldom see those here in NA

[ifyarekcon]

Was lucky enough to play the course late last week. Conditioning was amongst the best I have ever seen. The clubhouse is abundant in history and you can spend hours looking across all the wall hangings. Without much wind and the tees slightly forward, only 2 amongst our group of 80+ golfers could break their handicap. It certainly goes to show you don't need a monster to keep golfers honest.

[The Colonel]

Geoff, Victoria is a very nice track but it isn't even as good as Woodlands or Commonwealth. Maybe the 5th best of the sandbelt courses if you don't count peninsula North and South.

[fishman]

Fantastic looking design. Do all of these Sandbelt stunners achieve that elusive standard of greatness: challenging for the pros, eminently playable for all? We’ll see, if the breeze is up. I’d second that course review show proposal, but folks have no idea about the production problems involved. Done well, it would take days to shoot and edit. And please, don’t have some pro golfer explain how to play the hole! I do think it could be done with a combination of beauty shots and computer graphics to explain strategic options. The preview show could then be edited into vignettes and used to enhance the broadcast. You’d be perfect, Geoff. We need a design geek, not golf jock, to appreciate the architecture and art.

[Chop]

You must be joking The Colonel. I agree that Commonwealth has improved greatly over the past few years, but Woodlands and Peninsula are tier 2 clubs at best. Make sure you get out to Vic over the weekend and you'll see for yourself.

[OWGR Fan]

@Brad .... regarding uphill par 3's. Plenty of them here in Western PA!

[El Presidente]

Chop,

Why are you bothering to comment on something you have absolutely no idea about?

Victoria is a pleasant course with a few nice holes, but that is as far as it goes. Most holes you hit it down the middle and go from there. Apart from 3 and 13 there is scarcely any strategy. Woodlands and the two at Peninsula have more strategy in their first six or seven holes than the entire 18 at Vic.

[Allan Washington]

I remember asking Stuart Applebywhat he thought of the course when he won the vic open at Victoria and he remarked, "I had to play the challenging par threes spot on each day and some second shots around the track made me dig really deep before choosing a club".Last year he said much the same.It's another world class course in our wonderful sand belt.

[Mike Clayton]

There is no strategy at 1 or 15 or 8? No reward for playing close to the bunker at 12 or the right edge of the fairway at 13?

[Covered in Sand]

Visiting from Sydney, played Commonwealth & Victoria in October. Commonwealth is great and I played really well there. Victoria, however, is more interesting and tougher. I thought bunker placement is the reason it was harder. Victoria has a much nicer clubhouse and has an aura about it.

[DK of Barwon Heads]

Hats off again to clayts and his team. Providing a natural golf course, with stacks of options and in fine condition.As the original architects intended.I really like what he did at the heath, spring valley, port fairy, peninsula, barnbougle, the lakes and metro. The man is pure.Making golf fun again.

[Chop]

You can't be serious El Presidente, 3 and 13?

Don't suppose you caught Luke Donald over the weekend saying that Vic is now in his top 10 favourite courses worldwide?

Truth is, what would I know, but I am fairly sure that most who have played it, would agree with Clayts & GShack on this one.

[Ken R]

Victoria GC provides a challenge for all standard of golfer. The first three holes alone are testament to that, and we have only started.
It is a course that you would never tire of playing as you are presented with so many options on nearly every Tee. The work that has been done on the course over recent years, must place it once again in the top 2 or 3 in Melbourne. It is a true Sandbelt course where others seem to fail. Listened to Mike Clayton on ABC Radio commentating on the Golf in Melbourne recently and his description of each hole and the strategy needed to best play the hole was so informative, it left the Eddies of the TV world for dead. Geoff Shacklleford would be such an assett to any TV broadcast.

[Pas]

Absolutely wonderful golf course. Played it many times and have stayed there also, has to be on everyone's bucket list.
Strategy????? Plenty of it, shots into greens must be so precise...........great fun. Luke Donald wasn't wrong in his assessment.